The invention concerns a device to make holes in the uprights of a frame of a wing for doors or windows of the type with the selective regulation of the light through strips, or blinds, oscillating around at least one axis.
The invention also concerns a method to calculate, in a substantially automatic fashion, according to the height of the wing gap ad the standardized height of each single blind, the number of blinds which can be applied to the wing and the interaxis, or pitch, between the holes by which the blinds are attached to said frame.
The device is substantially composed of a hole-making assembly, a programmable command unit which governs said hole-making assembly and a control panel to set the parameters and verify that operations are correct.
The state of the art includes wings for doors or windows comprising a frame consisting of one or more lower cross-pieces, one or more upper cross-pieces and substantially vertical uprights orthogonal to said upper and lower cross-pieces, on which a plurality of blinds are mounted, parallel and contiguous, and are able to be moved to allow more or less light to pass.
The blinds pivot oscillating with respect to said uprights and can assume a first position wherein they totally prevent the light from passing, a second position wherein they allow a maximum amount of light to pass, and a plurality of intermediate positions between said first and second position.
It is also known that making holes to attach the blinds to the frame is usually done with a constant pitch and has to take into account the size of the door or window, and hence the gap defined by the frame of the wing, and the size, particularly the height, of the blinds which will be applied.
The wing gap is usually a fixed parameter, restricted by the size of the door or window in which it is applied, and therefore restricts the fiber and pitch of the blinds which can be applied.
In the state of the art, the usual procedure is to calculate the number of blinds which it is desired to apply in the wing, and then calculate the interaxis at which the blinds are attached to ensure that a desired condition of partial superimposition, or minimum overlap, is obtained between adjacent blinds.
In accordance with these calculations, the height of the blinds is then adjusted, by trimming then lengthwise before sanding and the final varnishing or painting.
On the contrary, if pre-painted and surface finished elements are used, either for the frame or the blinds, it is not possible to carry out said trimming and the value of the height of the blind constitutes a fixed parameter which cannot be modified after the interaxis has been calculated.
This entails identifying a method of calculation which will ensure it is possible to design a wing in such a manner as to respect the desired requisites of reciprocal positioning of the blinds, so as to ensure a precise functioning and high level of efficiency thereof in opening/closing the wing gap.
To make the holes in the wing uprights on which the blinds are attached oscillating, semi-automatic machines are conventionally used, substantially composed of a hole-making assembly, a base structure and an electric panel inside which there is the programmable unit, for example a PLC, able to give commands in a logical sequence to the whole machine.
In such conventional machines, however, an automatic calculation method is not provided suitable to supply, according to fixed and pre-settable parameters input to the machine, the value of interaxis according to which the holes have to be made to allow to mount a desired number of blinds of a standardized height in a reciprocal position such as to ensure a desired condition of partial superimposition, or overlap.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,658 describes a wing including a frame and a plurality of oscillating blinds, made of plastic and able to be moved by means of a rack which cooperates with gears mounted in cooperation with the pins on which said blinds oscillate. This document provides that the blinds can be mounted on the uprights of the frame with variable interaxes, according to the size of the space available and according to the necessary number of blinds to be installed. This variability is allowed by the fact that, thanks to the presence of the rack ad the movement gears, it is possible to avoid including a command rod and oscillating hinges.
However, this document does not disclose a unified and standardized method of calculation which provides to define a minimum overlap, and possibly a maximum overlap, between adjacent blinds, in order to calculate the number of blinds which can be applied in a defined gap of a wing for doors or windows.
It must be stressed that if two adjacent blinds do not have a certain minimum value of reciprocal overlap, they can rotate with respect to each other beyond the position of substantial alignment, and/or they can allow rays of light to pass even in an apparently closed condition.
Instead, if two adjacent blinds have an overlap value of more than a defined maximum value, there is an economic problem because more blinds than necessary are used, a practical problem concerning the efficient movement of the blinds and an aesthetic problem concerning the excessive density and excessive overlap, particularly when the blinds have shapings or waves in their profile.
U.S. ""658 provides to vary the interaxis and calculate the assembly positions of the blinds by means of a computer, but does not define the criteria in order to guarantee that an effective result is obtained both from a practical and aesthetic point of view.
The present Applicant has devise and embodied this invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain further advantages.
The invention is set forth and characterized in the respective main claims, while the dependent claims describe other innovative characteristics of the invention.
The main purpose of the invention is to achieve a method which can be applied to a hole-making device, which will enable to make an automatic calculation of the pitch at which a plurality of holes have to be made to attach, in a wing for doors or windows, a plurality of oscillating blinds able to permit a selective passage of the light.
To be more exact, after determining the number of blinds applicable to the wing, the method according to the invention allows to calculate the pitch, so as to ensure an overlap greater than a minimum pre-determined value and such as to guarantee an efficient functioning of the wing, particularly when the blinds are in the closed position.
According to a variant, the method also provides to pre-define a maximum overlap value beyond which two adjacent blinds must not overlap.
Another purpose is to achieve the hole-making device which fulfils this method.
The invention is applied in wings for doors or windows which use substantially standardized components, pre-painted or pre-varnished and surface finished, which cannot be trimmed at least in height.
In accordance with these purposes, the device according to the invention comprises at least hole-making means mounted on movement means and able to make in sequence a plurality of holes on one or more uprights, guide means on which said hole-making means are able to move and a command and control unit able to automatically calculate the pitch at which the holes have to be made after receiving, as input data, the fixed parameters of the wing, and to condition to this end the activation of the hole-making means.
The hole-making device also comprises a base structure on which said guide means are mounted; positioning and clamping means able to position and clamp said uprights in the position in which the holes will be made therein are also mounted on said base structure.
The command and control unit is able to receive and process the input data, perform the calculations concerning the number of blinds, the pitch and the overlap and, in a preferential embodiment, to display the results of said calculations.
The calculation method substantially provides the following passes: the usable height of the wing, that is the height of the gap, is divided by the standardized height of each individual blind chosen; this calculation normally gives a decimal number, which is rounded up to obtain the number of blinds.
Then the difference between the height occupied by all the blinds calculated thus and the wing gap is divided by the number of blinds, to obtain the value of the overlap relating to each pair of adjacent blinds. The overlap must be greater than a minimum value set as an obligatory parameter. If the value of the overlap given by the calculation is less than said minimum value, another blind is added and the calculation is repeated, taking care that, with this extra blind, the overlap does not exceed a pre-set maximum value.
From the definitive number of blinds we finally obtain the pitch at which the holes have to be made on the uprights.
According to said calculations the command and control unit determines the activation of the hole-making assembly so that it makes the holes according to the constant pitch determined by the calculations.